I read another book written by Joyce Carol Oates and I absolutely hated it. Despite that, I thought I would give this novel a try. As it turns out, this was way worse than the other book I read from Oates. I absolutely hated every aspect of this novel. For starters, the writing style was so irritating, I couldn’t handle it. Whether in Dinah’s perspective or Daddy Love’s perspective, the narration grated on me to the point where I couldn’t take reading it for another second or I would have to find the closest window to jump out of it. The characters were awful and one-dimensional. They did not resemble real people. Also, the novel, although short in word count, is long-winded. The narration goes on and on and nothing happens. It’s as if Oates is writing words for the sake of writing words. I only made it about a third of the way through this novel, and I almost always finish novels that I start, no matter how bad they are. This is one of the worst I’ve read.

This was the first of her books that I have read though I have wanted to read several and it was very good though a little creepy. It really addresses a subject that no one wants to think about or discuss but it really needs to be discussed and brought out into the open. I thought it ended a little abruptly and she could have brought it to a smoother ending. Overall, I thought it was good and I would like to read more of her books.

I have read many books on the subject of child abuse and pedophilia and many of them were quite good. This one is not. What do you do if you have one hundred and fifty pages of content and you want to write a book over two hundred fifty pages long. First, you refer to the characters by name over and over again. Daddy Love must be in the text a thousand times. I read Mommie, Robbie and Gabriel so many times that I wanted to scream. It wasn't just names that were constantly repeated - many other aspects of the book were also.After spending 2/3 of the book with Daddy Love Oates drops him like a hot potato and goes back to lives of the missing boys parents who have been absent for five years. This is the literary equivalent of listening to fingernails scratching a chalk board.. ( )

Creepy, unsettling, and brilliant! Oates’ novel recounts the kidnapping of a very young boy named Robbie Whitcomb by a man who calls himself Daddy Love. Oates details the cycle of sexual and physical abuse and conditioning that bond the two as father and son in the eyes of their community for six years. Oates also shows the painful crumbling of the marriage of Robbie’s real parents and a reunion that is so sad it’s tragic. This disturbing book will appeal to fans of Emma Donoghue’s Room.

I almost abandoned this book about a little boy, Robbie, who is abducted and sexually tortured for six years. The early chapters were just too disturbing. Either I hardened my heart or I just got caught up in the suspense, but I’m glad I stuck it out. It’s a riveting portrayal of a despicable monster and it raises interesting questions about how trauma and abuse shapes a child.

Note: to this reader, the first few chapters were excruciating. Describing the abduction of the boy outside a shopping mall, Oates repeats the same facts over and over from slightly different perspectives, and I lost patience quickly. Then as the story changes over to Robbie’s life with the predator, Oates abandons the technique of repetition and the pace of the book speeds up considerably. ( )

Wikipedia in English

Dinah Whitcomb seemingly has everything. A loving and successful husband, and a smart, precocious young son named Robbie. One day, their worlds are shattered when Dinah is attacked and Robbie is taken in a mall parking lot. Dinah, injured, attempts to follow, but is run over by the kidnapper's van, mangling her body nearly beyond repair.

The kidnapper, a part-time Preacher named Chester Cash, calls himself Daddy Love, as he has abducted, tortured, and raped several young boys into being his lover and as well as his 'son'. He confines Robbie in a device called an Wooden Maiden, in essence a small coffin, and renamed him 'Gideon'. Daddy Love slowly brainwashes 'Gideon' into believing that he is Daddy Love's real son, and any time the boy resists or rebels it is met with punishment beyond his wildest nightmares.

As Dinah recovers from her wounds, her world and her marriage struggle to exist every day. Though it seems hopeless, she keeps a flicker of hope alive that her son is still alive.

As Robbie grows older, he becomes more aware of just how monstrous Daddy Love truly is. Though as a small boy he as terrified of what might happen if he disobeyed Daddy Love, Robbie begins to realize that the longer he stays in the home of this demon, the greater chance he'll end up like Daddy Love's other 'sons' who were never heard from again. Somewhere within this tortured young boy lies a spark of rebellion...and soon he sees just what lengths he must go to in order to have any chance at survival.

(retrieved from Amazon Mon, 30 Sep 2013 13:28:16 -0400)

▾Library descriptions

Kidnapping a latest victim in a string of young boys he tortures and rapes, a self-styled preacher confines the child in a small box and gradually brainwashes him over subsequent years into believing that they are father and son; while the boy's mother, who was savagely injured during the abduction, clings to hope that her son is alive.… (more)